The Blog

Situated just across the channel from England, it’s perhaps little wonder that the Netherlands tends to produce more good rock bands than the rest of continental Europe. The Shocking Blue, Golden Earring and Bettie Serveert are a few names that spring to mind in terms of the Dutch contribution to the rock pantheon over the years. Oh yeah, and a couple of brothers named Eddie and Alex, whose family moved to Southern California, but that’s a different story.

Among Holland’s most recent musical exports are De Staat, an alt-rock outfit from Nijmegen, near the German border. Formed in 2006 by singer/songwriter/guitarist Torre Florim, the band has an eclectic garage rock sound that’s been referred to as “art blues” and drawn comparisons to acts like Queens Of The Stone Age and The Eagles of Death Metal.

De Staat have found a decent measure of success playing around Holland, Belgium and the rest of Europe. They’ve also made some inroads into the British rock scene, making an appearance at the legendary Glastonbury Festival back in 2010. Currently signed to Mascot Records, De Staat have just released their third albumI_CON.

“We’re all icons as well as con artists,” explains Florim in a statement about the new album. “We’ve all created some profile somewhere that shows only part of our reality; only that part of ourselves that works best for us.”

The new album features an array of icons, con artists and other colorful characters, populating a musical landscape of African rhythms, sci-fi synths, and artfully angular blues rock guitar riffery.

The band went film noir for the first official video release off the album for the song “Devil’s Blood.” Check it out!